Early goals sink Fife Flyers as coach holds up his hands

The bulk of the damage in a 9-3 loss came in the first period as the hosts racked up a 5-0 opening period, with coach Johnny Curran taking responsibility.

“I’ll own that one, it’s on me,” he said. I wanted us to be as seamless as we were against Belfast - I loved our game - and pre-match I was getting them on the ice as quickly as possible and didn’t address them as much as I should have with Nottingham,and they cut us apart. They scored a ton of goals up high which I didn’t address.”

While Flyers did find momentum after Panthers switched their netminders and found the net in the second, the result was already in the bag.

Michael Cichy almost gave Flyers an early lead when the puck came to him off a lucky bounce, but he shot just wide. Just three seconds into a Patrick Kyte slashing minor, Hugo Roy let rip from the high slot off a faceoff win to put Panthers ahead at 4:08. On their second powerplay, David Bunz fed Kris Kontos for a shot just over the glove of Janis Voris to double the home side’s lead at 7:35. Voris then pulled off two excellent glove saves, the latter from Bunz a sure candidate for Save of the Week.

Roy had too much time and space to pick his spot for 3-0 on the 11-minute mark, Matt Spencer’s shot from just inside the blue line went all the way through for 4-0, and Kontos added his second of the night with a back-post finish.

Tim Doherty converted on an odd-man rush for the Panthers to make it 6-0, and it could have been more were it not for Brodie Kay intercepting on a three on one rush. Netminder Jere Huhtamaa his debut in net on the half hour mark and was beaten by Charles-Antoine Paiement.

Bunz’s shot from a tight angle made it 7-1 before Flyers netted twice through Jordy Stallard.

Lingering hopes of a revival were effectively snuffed out when Quinn Wichers scored Panthers' eighth at 45:39, followed by Doherty making it 9-3 at 51:37.